In the process of orientation to the standard IMRAD structure, besides the main sections Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, additional sections may also be highlighted. The additional sections include theoretical information that contributes to the detailed study of the topic. Additional sections can be represented by “Theoretical Overview”, “Literature Review”, “Problem Statement”, “Recommendations” etc. Recommendations can also be specified in a particular section; additional subparagraphs in the main sections can be presented.
The “Literature Review” section of the article is aimed at displaying and analyzing published research in the chosen field in order to identify existing gaps.
The information in the section should precisely correlate with the topic of the research, revealing the most similar variations of the conducted research. For example, if the article considers the specific features of the development of painting of Ukrainian artists with French painters, the “Literature Review” should include the specifics of research in this direction as well as take into account the study of the specifics of the interaction of Ukrainian artists with artists from other countries, not focusing only on France. This approach will make it possible to explore possible research options and highlight existing approaches that will be transformed in the new work. “Literature review” can also be coupled with the section “Introduction” and is aimed at exploring approaches to the research of the authors’ chosen topic.
The “Theoretical Review” is an additional section that appears separately much less often than the “Literature Review”. The “Theoretical Review” may provide additional information about the disclosure of general data on the selected topic that is absent in the introduction. The “Theoretical Review” section helps to separate the extensive provision of information in the introduction for better perception. The section may provide additional analysis of the topic, justify additional theoretical aspects, use terminology, etc. The inclusion of the “Theoretical section” in the article contributes to the detailed elaboration of the theoretical part of the research.
An additional section ” Problem Statement” can be listed after the “Literature Review” or included in the “Introduction”. The necessity of this section consists in a brief justification of the main problem of the research, which is precisely connected with the results made. Also, in this section, the purpose of the work should be outlined in accordance with the research topic and justify the tasks set for the authors. The tasks set should correspond to the results of the study, including the concretization of obtaining a certain parameter.
An additional section “Recommendations” can be formulated after the “Conclusions”. The section contributes to understanding of detailing the practical significance of the work as well as the benefits obtained as a result of the research.
An additional section can also be “Acknowledgements”, if this is stipulated by the submitted research. In the Acknowledgements section, it is possible to indicate information about sources of funding and grant data on which the research was grounded. The section may also include acknowledgements to individual specialists who contributed to the intellectual content of the submitted article (assistance in data interpretation, selection of the laboratory for the study, etc.).
The article may have additional subparagraphs in the main sections, which help to detail the information. For example, in the methodology section, there may be subparagraphs: research design (which facilitates the description of the stages of the work based on certain methods), sample (which specifies data about respondents to the study), and statistical processing (the authors may provide a description of approaches to the processing of the numerical results of the work).
There may be another paragraph “Data collection”, which provides information about approaches to obtaining data from respondents or from other sources for the study. The sub-paragraph “Ethical Issues” helps to reflect the ethical issues that guided the authors during the writing of the article; providing information about the permissions obtained to conduct research and the obtained data (for example, the results of treatment in medical articles).
The limitations of research may be presented in the paragraph “Research limitations”, which helps to determine the future prospects of the results obtained. The methodology section may include many subparagraphs or reflect the entire information, which may be stipulated by the requirements for the authors of a separately selected journal.
Additional sections in the article contribute to the detailed provision of information for the disclosure of a particular issue. However, their necessity or absence depends on the requirements of the journal.